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BAI had recently announced 57 probables, including 22 women, for the Asian Games (Sept. 19 to Oct. 4, 2014 at Incheon, South Korea) and the next Olympics (Rio, Brazil, in 2016). Now they have planned a series of camps for these two mega events.

The probables have been divided into three groups - 33 (Gopichand Academy, Hyderabad), 9 (BBD Uttar Pradesh Academy, Lucknow) and 15 (Prakash Padukone Academy, Bangalore). The first camp will be held simultaneously at all three centres from Jan. 15 to Mar. 10.

While chief national coach Pullela Gopichand will be overall in-charge of these camps, the ones in Bangalore and Lucknow will be co-ordinated by U Vimal Kumar and BAI general secretary Vijai Sinha, respectively.

The BAI has also announced a huge support staff which includes two foreign coaches - Hendra Mulyono, Dwi Kristiwan of Indonesia - who will be assisted by a host of Indian coaches.

While selecting the probables, the BAI selectors have kept youngsters in mind as several talented teenagers found the place in the 50-plus list.

Junior world No. 1 Aditya Joshi, U-19 world No. 8 Harsheel Dani and national junior champion Chirag Shetty are expected to do well in the senior section too and so does Rituparna Das.

The promising shuttler had surprised everyone by storming into the women's singles final at the Senior Nationals in New Delhi last month.

The BAI has also included Jwala Gutta and Prajakta Sawant for the women's doubles, which is a heartening thing for the duo. The two doubles specialists were at loggerheads with the national federation in the last year.

Newly Badminton Association of India (BAI) president Dr Akhilesh Das Gupta for the second time today announced that four more National Badminton Academies would be coming up in the country very soon and the BAI has constituted a fund of Rs 25 lakh for giving financial assistance to the old and senior players.
"The new National Badminton academies were coming up in Manipur, Pondicherry and Chennai besides one would be set up in Rajasthan," announced Mr Gupta after being elected unopposed for the president of the BAI here today.
He said Manipur would be the thrust of the BAI to develop badminton activity. The country has already 3 national academies in Hyderabad, Bangalore and Lucknow.
"The BAI president also disclosed that recently Badminton World Federation has informed that India has the highest number of badminton viewers in the world. India has the highest viewership of badminton after cricket," he claimed.
"We have now concentrated on giving specialised training to doubles shuttlers in the country by sending them abroad or training them by calling special coaches and even holding doubles training camps," he added.

"It is a fantastic victory. I think it is one of the best wins for men's singles. I think the quality of the tournament was fantastic and Arvind having won it out of nowhere is an amazing performance," Gopichand told PTI.

"I think he had some matches against good players. He was leading against Srikanth during Indian Open. He also had some bad luck. But to come out of it and to win such an important tournament is phenomenol," he added.

The 2001 All England champion said it is "tough" on the body to go through the rigours and recover during such a top class tournament.

"It is tough. Winning one match is okay but to actually win all of them is excellent. I am very happy his body lasted the entire tournament and he recovered well. I feel he has a couple of years more and he can get a couple of big wins under his belt," said Gopichand, who had reached the final of the same event way back in 1999.

"I definetely think it is a big boost to his career. He doesn't have any more injuries and I think the confidence that such a win gives is remarkable. I think the entire men's singles brigade will take positives out of this victory," he added.

Asked about the upcoming Commonwealth Games and Asian Games, Gopichand said: "This victory will hold him in good stead."

It is not just Sindhu or Saina or KP or ABC or XYZ, but almost every Indian player that appears to be clueless in terms of strategy, tactics, preparation, awareness or anything at all- looking more and more like amateurs one day, and almost like pros the next, but never anything better.

I've been getting this feeling for some time now, that all is not right at BAI and at their (national) academy and that many powerful forces have been pulling in very different directions. Plus, a lot of unhappy faces in the camp. It is okay for a player or two to return inconsistent results for a few months. But when everyone in your national set-up is doing it, it is indicative of a very serious situation that goes far beyond the players themselves. There appear to be more unsettling rather than constructive influences in operation.

Indeed. After watching yesterday's match of P.V.Sindhu , i must say she is still an amateur. she did not played even for a moment as if she played at world championships.. She was completely like an amateur. Really disappointed. So many unforced errors to gift the opponent easy points are one among her game's improvement nowadays. And also, her movement on court was very clumsy as if she was in confusion which way to go. Her strategy did not work at all. But still her agression is there for goodness sake. I wonder how she does in coming tournaments where she would be unseeded and have to meet topseeded players in the early rounds. Next two or three meetings between wang yihan or wang shixian will give the answers ..

I am a rather disappointed about the overall slow progress in Indian badminton. We had great excitement two years ago but everything seems to me to be a bit flat after the IBL with the odd bright spark here and there. Doesn't seem to be any consistency.

Regarding their national academy, I remember an article with Jwala saying Gopi ran it as his private academy. She pointed out the conflict of personal and national interest. I thought it was a fair point to make (but you know, anything with Jwala gets taken with a pinch of salt now).

I am a rather disappointed about the overall slow progress in Indian badminton. We had great excitement two years ago but everything seems to me to be a bit flat after the IBL with the odd bright spark here and there. Doesn't seem to be any consistency.

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just as I write that, Srikanth makes me eat my words with a great display against LCW. How embarrassing! LOL

Thomas cup would be interesting.. I wonder if malaysia plays india and if srikanth is allowed to play LCW again for MS1 and Kashyap for MS2 and Sourabh verma for MS3. But doubles area...??? Still -------- !!!!